Light pipes are conventionally used in various lighting applications. One application utilizes light pipe technology in the form of fiber optics to facilitate ambient lighting. For example, such lighting techniques may be integrated into a vehicular setting. Traditionally, automobile manufacturers have incorporated incandescent, halogen, and the other light bulbs to illuminate the vehicle interior, such as with dome lights, map lights, and the like. However, the additional bulbs often add cost, weight and other assorted difficulties in packing the additional components.
Another use for fiber optic cabling includes transferring visual and non-visual information or indicia from a point of transmission to an intended destination. Transmission of light by light pipes, however, is not without limitations as it is not one hundred percent efficient. Several reasons for this inefficiency include, without limitation, absorption by the core and the cladding that extends around the core. This is due to the presence of impurities and other phenomenon. Another reason is due to the leaking of light from the cladding. As light reflects off the interface between the cladding and the core, the light actually travels for a short distance within the cladding before being reflected back into the core. Such a phenomenon leads to attenuation of the light.
As competition increases and vehicle manufacturers vie for customers, some vehicle manufacturers have begun to consider incorporating added features into vehicles as selling points. For example, some vehicles currently offer liquid crystal displays (“LCD”) and movie playing devices, such as digital videodisk players (“DVD”). Thus, it would be advantageous to integrate light pipe technology, such as ambient lighting, into vehicles.
Therefore, it is desired to address the disadvantages that arise as a result of using such technology, including without limitation, loss due to signal attenuation. Thus, it would be desirable to develop a light pipe that gave the appearance of even light distribution along the length of the pipe, which would improve the aesthetics of the light pipe, and the object it is attached to, such as a car.